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I work in IT, am from Tennessee, live in Indiana, and would like to get back to Tennessee.
Tennessee has a low cost of living and low wages, but there are many other Plains and Midwestern states that also offer a cost of living roughly on par with that in Tennessee.
I'm a mid level IT professional (application administrator at a bank) and make a bit over $60k in the suburbs of Indianapolis. I moved here from east Tennessee because of a job offer two years ago and have enhanced my skills dramatically, especially in the financial services space. I'm very proficient in business and application automation, am performing application administrator duties in numerous Fiserv products, have intermediate SQL skills, etc.
Whenever I apply to jobs roughly matching my skills in NC,TN,SC (assuming I can find similar jobs at all), I frequently get calls back, but the pay is abysmal - almost always under $40,000 and of those, most are under $35,000. These are not from hole in the wall employers or basic help desk positions - these are in application/system analyst, system/application analyst, business analyst roles in big cities. I recently had an interview with Bank of New York Mellon in their Nashville offices for a business analyst role - starting salary, $36,000. A year or so ago, I had an interview with UT-Knoxville for an IT Specialist III within the university system - for a whopping $27,000.
I'm applying to well-known and supposedly prestigious organizations, and am getting wages that aren't much more than working retail here up north. Have you noticed a trend of Southern employers paying employees a pittance compared to what they could get in places with a similar cost of living?
Well, I lived in MO and was in the little town of Cabool. Wages and COL were low for a reason...Few employees and fewer employers. Social services? Yeah, drive to Springfield (90 miles) away. Heck, even the walmart was 10 miles...
I knew a mechanic who did a complete head gasket repair for a guy. Normally $1,200 or so. Nope he did it for $700 cash, $900 credit....Prices for food, very reasonable mainly as (Back then) min wage in the state was still $5.25 an hour and the hue and cry about raising it to $6.50 was deafening.
There just aren't many employers in the south so they know they can get away with borderline slave labor for little pay.
Supply and Demand in the South.. Little supply of jobs, HIGH demand for jobs and with many people in the south being uneducated, companies can lowball salary offers to no end.
Down here in certain area of Texas, if you can make 40-45 grand a year thats almost the equivalent of making $200,000 grand a year in the north
I know in Ohio those same roles you mentioned pay close to the same. Entry-level IT jobs are between 30-40k. I see higher level positions like Network Engineers pay between 50-80k. I talk to recruiters and they are telling me that new IT grads are graduating without certifications or experience and expecting to start IT at 50-60k. IT roles seem to be growing in my area, but programming/development is still where the money is at.
I was talking to a friend about this recently. She lives in Florida. She was telling me, of course, it's a smarter move for me to leave the DC area and move to Florida because, although I would be taking a SIGNIFICANT pay cut, my cost of living would be cheaper... I still struggle with that.
Although I do think eventually, salary-wise, the south will catch up with the rest of the country. But it will be a long time before that happens imo.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Serious Conversation
A year or so ago, I had an interview with UT-Knoxville for an IT Specialist III within the university system - for a whopping $27,000.
I was talking to a friend about this recently. She lives in Florida. She was telling me, of course, it's a smarter move for me to leave the DC area and move to Florida because, although I would be taking a SIGNIFICANT pay cut, my cost of living would be cheaper... I still struggle with that.
Although I do think eventually, salary-wise, the south will catch up with the rest of the country. But it will be a long time before that happens imo.
Yikes.
I was investigating this: a "DC job" in FL with the various quality of life benefits.
The big catch is finding a "DC" job. Professional roles are relatively few and far in an economy somewhat resembling a third world country: agriculture, government, the wealthy/retirees, and their servants.
Many people in the South are very fiscally conservative. I live by the Ohio River close to Louisville in Indiana and you would be amazed at how far people stretch money here to remain solidly middle class. The median household income of around $50K is the average and is middle class due the cost of living being 15% less than the national average. However, wages for most career positions that require a college degree are rarely north of $40K. I prefer living in the north if I had my choice.. In a few years I am planning on moving to the Twin Cities. You get what you pay for in terms of amenities vs COL most of the time outside of some exclusive coastal areas.
Well, I lived in MO and was in the little town of Cabool. Wages and COL were low for a reason...Few employees and fewer employers. Social services? Yeah, drive to Springfield (90 miles) away. Heck, even the walmart was 10 miles...
I knew a mechanic who did a complete head gasket repair for a guy. Normally $1,200 or so. Nope he did it for $700 cash, $900 credit....Prices for food, very reasonable mainly as (Back then) min wage in the state wats still $5.25 an hour and the hue and cry about raising it to $6.50 was deafening.
In my rural TN hometown, food prices are sky high and property prices aren't as low as you'd expect, especially compared to here in central Indiana. Granted, the state and local tax advantages help offset that, but nowhere near to the degree of the wage gap
Bigger the city the larger the wages will usually be. But with increase in wages comes a higher cost of living.
Just the way things are these days.
I think the best situation is when a person is able to find a high paying job in a bigger city and then transfer after a while to a lower cost of living city WITH THE SAME WAGES.
I know of a few people that did this.
You want to make the big bucks.
You are going to have to move to where the money is.
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